(un)reason
Legend
Dragon Magazine Issue 257: March 1999
part 4/8
Dark Ages: Whoa. A 21 page special feature. Now that's not something they do very often. In fact, wasn't the last one about this time last year, and also featuring Roger Raupp's material. He brings the old school vibe back to the magazine, or something. As befits their current editorial direction though, this is quite crunch heavy, assuming that you're at least moderately familiar with the idea of dark ages history, and showing us how to implement it in a mechanical sense, with new races and kits taking up well over half of the page count. Since this is an epic feature, I think I should break it up into subcategories to give it it's due.
The setting information includes a map and a timeline, taking us from the departure of the romans to 1066 and the arrival of the Normans. It includes details of the various kingdoms within the british isles, which generally aren't actually that big. But then, when you don't have fast communication or travel, it's a lot easier to feel like a big fish who rules all he surveys. So this is a good reminder that even at name level when you get your own domain, it doesn't have to be that big or populous by modern standards to feel like a real handful to manage. Still, you'll have to refer to the bibliography if you really want in depth information on how real world dark ages kingdoms turned out, and what life in one was like.
The races information not only covers demihumans, but also gives racial modifiers to the celts and picts, while leaving the anglo-saxons as the "base" human race. While this might be slightly dubious from a political correctness PoV, it will allow you to differentiate your characters more without relying on the supernatural elements. The new races are erkling and trow, forest goblins and dwarf-troll hybrids, both of which tend to be sneaky and rather good as thieves, but poor to mediocre at other class options. They definitely fall into the category of creatures that will be unpopular in human settlements and have to work hard to escape their heritage. So yeah, if you're not comfortable with both real world and fantasy racism and incorporating it into your game, (while preferably separating it from your own personal beliefs) you may want to think hard about this bit.
And we not only get 8 new kits, but also extensive reference to the existing complete handbook series and historical sourcebooks, ensuring that they aren't repeating material from those. Most of these are of the concrete benefits for social hindrances kind though, tying you into the setting, and making it a pain to just go off on adventures for extended periods of time. So I think this is one that put a bit more effort into research than adapting it for the game. While extensive, I don't think it counts as a classic one. But don't let that put you off trying a few more of these.
Fighting with flair: Or yet another attempt to give warriors cool things to do. Which to be fair, they are gradually getting better at, even if they continue to fall behind spellcasters by comparison. Skills and powers is good for something, and that's helping you really figure out if a particular kit is over or underpowered, and ensuring the character overall is balanced despite this. At least, that's presuming the individual powers and drawbacks are accurately priced and don't have game breaking combos that are way more than the sum of their parts. Since nearly all of these have costs in multiples of 5, fine-tuning does not appear to be on the agenda. Still, this does have a lot of detail in other respects, including referencing many books. So it looks like after several issues which I've criticised for being too disconnected, this one is going the other way, with articles that demand you have lots of supplements to fully use them. That's a pleasant change, at least until they overdo it. Still, plenty of room for the other articles to balance it out.
part 4/8
Dark Ages: Whoa. A 21 page special feature. Now that's not something they do very often. In fact, wasn't the last one about this time last year, and also featuring Roger Raupp's material. He brings the old school vibe back to the magazine, or something. As befits their current editorial direction though, this is quite crunch heavy, assuming that you're at least moderately familiar with the idea of dark ages history, and showing us how to implement it in a mechanical sense, with new races and kits taking up well over half of the page count. Since this is an epic feature, I think I should break it up into subcategories to give it it's due.
The setting information includes a map and a timeline, taking us from the departure of the romans to 1066 and the arrival of the Normans. It includes details of the various kingdoms within the british isles, which generally aren't actually that big. But then, when you don't have fast communication or travel, it's a lot easier to feel like a big fish who rules all he surveys. So this is a good reminder that even at name level when you get your own domain, it doesn't have to be that big or populous by modern standards to feel like a real handful to manage. Still, you'll have to refer to the bibliography if you really want in depth information on how real world dark ages kingdoms turned out, and what life in one was like.
The races information not only covers demihumans, but also gives racial modifiers to the celts and picts, while leaving the anglo-saxons as the "base" human race. While this might be slightly dubious from a political correctness PoV, it will allow you to differentiate your characters more without relying on the supernatural elements. The new races are erkling and trow, forest goblins and dwarf-troll hybrids, both of which tend to be sneaky and rather good as thieves, but poor to mediocre at other class options. They definitely fall into the category of creatures that will be unpopular in human settlements and have to work hard to escape their heritage. So yeah, if you're not comfortable with both real world and fantasy racism and incorporating it into your game, (while preferably separating it from your own personal beliefs) you may want to think hard about this bit.
And we not only get 8 new kits, but also extensive reference to the existing complete handbook series and historical sourcebooks, ensuring that they aren't repeating material from those. Most of these are of the concrete benefits for social hindrances kind though, tying you into the setting, and making it a pain to just go off on adventures for extended periods of time. So I think this is one that put a bit more effort into research than adapting it for the game. While extensive, I don't think it counts as a classic one. But don't let that put you off trying a few more of these.
Fighting with flair: Or yet another attempt to give warriors cool things to do. Which to be fair, they are gradually getting better at, even if they continue to fall behind spellcasters by comparison. Skills and powers is good for something, and that's helping you really figure out if a particular kit is over or underpowered, and ensuring the character overall is balanced despite this. At least, that's presuming the individual powers and drawbacks are accurately priced and don't have game breaking combos that are way more than the sum of their parts. Since nearly all of these have costs in multiples of 5, fine-tuning does not appear to be on the agenda. Still, this does have a lot of detail in other respects, including referencing many books. So it looks like after several issues which I've criticised for being too disconnected, this one is going the other way, with articles that demand you have lots of supplements to fully use them. That's a pleasant change, at least until they overdo it. Still, plenty of room for the other articles to balance it out.
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